1.Introduction #

ChatBull is a php live chat plugin developed with latest technologies to solve the problem of communication in the business. It helps entrepreneurs, business owners, service providers or anybody who want to connect with their customers and understand their need.

ChatBull uses best frameworks CodeIgniter and Angular JS to serve an amazing real time chat experience.

You can use it on multiple sites, create unlimited departments, operators and unlock the limitless possibilities to connect with your potential customers. Its out of the box interface gives you an insight knowledge about your website visitors and their needs.

Trust in us, after having ChatBull, you will not only understand your customers but also your business which will help you grow it with a good pace.

2.System Requirement #

To have ChatBull installed on your server, your server must fulfil following requirements:

PHP 5.6 or higher is recommendedIt should work on 5.3.7 as well, but we strongly advise NOT to run such old versions of PHP, because of potential security and performance issues, as well as missing features.

MySQL 5.1 or higher

Both of the above requirements are very basic and mostly available on all popular hostings like GoDaddy, BlueHost etc.

3.1.Web Installation #

Step 0Copying Files to Your Server

You must have got a main zip file named “chatbull-pro-x.x.x.zip” with your purchase. You will need to extract this file. Extracting this file will create a folder “chatbull-pro-x.x.x”.

Now, Go inside “chatbull-pro-x.x.x” and you will find a folder “chatbull-pro-installer”.

You need to upload this folder in the root directory of your server. Usually the root directories are called “public_html” on a linux based hosting or “httpdocs” on windows based hosting.

You can change the folder name “chatbull-pro-installer” to any appropriate name you prefer. For example, livechat, support-chat etc.

Now, you can easily access the installer with the URL http://yourdomain.com/livechat (in case, you named the chatbull-pro-installer folder to livechat) and replace yourdomain.com to the domain where you have uploaded the Chatbull to.

ChatBull installs in three easy steps. All these steps are self explanatory but here is a detailed information about each of the step.

Step 1Create & Integrate Database

It requires following details to complete the step:

HostnameThis is usually localhost in most of the cases but could vary based on your hosting.

Database NameName of the database you have created on your server.

Database UsernameUsername of the user account on database server who has access to the above database.

Database PasswordPassword of the user account on database server who has access to above database.

Special NotesBut before you complete above steps, please go through with following notes.

We recommend you to create a separate database for ChatBull

If you are installing ChatBull in an existing database. Make sure that you have a full backup of your existing database and none of tables has prefix _chatbull

Fill all the detail and hit the CONTINUE button, this will connect your database if all the details you have entered is correct and will take you to the next step.

Step 2Admin Account Setup

This step is to setup the administrator account for your ChatBull Admin Panel.

You will need to fill following detail on this step:

Name – you can put name of the administrator person here.

Display Name – this name will appear to your visitors when admin user will be chatting with them.

Email – email address of the administrator.

Password – password for the administrator.

Both email & passwords you set here will be used for the login purpose.

After filling all the detail here. You will need to click the “CONTINUE” button. If everything is good, it will take you to the final step as given below.

Step 3Configuration Info

Congratulations!!!

You have installed ChatBull successfully on your server and it gives you all the information you need to login into the ChatBull admin panel.

Experience the excellence 🙂

Under the Here is what you can do next section you can find helpful articles which will make the rest necessary tasks easy for you to setup chatbull on all of the platforms.

4.How to Update #

4.1.How to update ChatBull Pro #

This step-by-step guide is for you to update ChatBull .

Step 1 – Copying Files to Your Server: You must have got a main zip file named “chatbull-pro-x.x.x.zip” with your purchase. You will need to extract this file. Extracting this file will create a folder “chatbull-pro-x.x.x”.

Now, Go inside “chatbull-pro-x.x.x” and you will find a folder “upgrade-to-chatbull-pro”.

Now, if your current ChatBull folder on server is “livechat” (it may be something else and its what you gave during installation), then upload all files and folders found in “upgrade-to-chatbull-pro” folder there in “livechat” folder. This will replace few files with the files in your existing folder of ChatBull.

Step 2 – Access The Upgrade Installer: Now, if your ChatBull folder is of name “livechat” on your server and your website is http://www.example.com then you need to access http://www.example.com/livechat in browser and this will initiate the upgrade process.

After accessing the above link, it will show you a screen with a button “UPDATE DATABASE”. Clicking this button will update your database and will make the necessary changes to make ChatBull Pro fully functional.

So, Congratulations!!! You are now with ChatBull Pro new version.

If you still have any query or face any trouble installing ChatBull. Feel free to contact at Support.

4.2.How to update ChatBull Lite #

This step-by-step guide is for you to update ChatBull .

Step 1 – Copying Files to Your Server: You must have got a main zip file named “chatbull-lite-x.x.x.zip” with your purchase. You will need to extract this file. Extracting this file will create a folder “chatbull-lite-x.x.x”.

Now, Go inside “chatbull-lite-x.x.x” and you will find a folder “upgrade-to-chatbull-lite”.

Now, if your current ChatBull folder on server is “livechat” (it may be something else and its what you gave during installation), then upload all files and folders found in “upgrade-to-chatbull-lite” folder there in “livechat” folder. This will replace few files with the files in your existing folder of ChatBull.

Step 2 – Access The Upgrade Installer: Now, if your ChatBull folder is of name “livechat” on your server and your website is http://www.example.com then you need to access http://www.example.com/livechat in browser and this will initiate the upgrade process.

After accessing the above link, it will show you a screen with a button “UPDATE DATABASE”. Clicking this button will update your database and will make the necessary changes to make ChatBull Lite fully functional.

So, Congratulations!!! You are now with ChatBull Lite new version.

If you still have any query or face any trouble installing ChatBull. Feel free to contact at Support.

6.1.Create a New Site #

Now, supposing that your are on Sites Now, you should see a + button in right bottom corner of your window.

Clicking this + button will open a new popup as given in below screenshot.

Now, you need to fill following information to create a new site:

Site Title (Required)This is a title of your website or business.

Site URL (Required)The domain name or URL of your website where you want visitor chatbox to be placed.

Email (Required)This is the email address which will be used as From email header to send any email to visitor. Like transcript email upon completion of a chat session.** We recommend that you use the same domain name based email address where you have installed chatbull to stop going these emails into spam or junk folder.For example, if you have installed chatbull on example.com then your email must be hello@example.com or so.

Site Logo (Optional)Here you can upload logo of your website. This logo could be used (if uploaded) in the emails templates sent to visitors.

After filling the above information, hit the SAVE button and a new site will be created.

6.3.Customize Chatbox Theme #

And click the settings icon for the site you want to customize the chatbox of. See the screenshot below for reference.

Here you will find four tabs and one of them is Theme as shown in below screenshot.

Clicking this tab will show all the options you can change the look & feel of the chatbox window on your site. Here is explanation on each of these options.

Choose ThemeYou can choose a theme (or we can say style) for your chatbox widget. The default theme is Bubbles Boom

Widget TypeThere are two type of widget types Chat Icon and Chat Bar. Choose the one which you like.In case you choose Chat Icon, You will see two more options. Chat Icon Size and Enable/Disable Online Animation.Under Chat Icon Size, you can choose one from three different sizes (large, medium and small) of the chatbox circle.Choosing Yes for Enable/Disable Online Animation will show a pulse effect on the Chat Icon and choosing NO will basically not apply that pulse animation.

Background ColorThis is the background color of the title bar as given in below screenshot.

Title ColorThis is the text color of the title bar.

Position
If choosen Left then the Chatbox will appear in left bottom corner and if Right then in the right bottom corner of your website.

** This position can only change on desktop screens. Not on mobile devices.

6.4.Site Settings #

6.4.1.General #

Go to Sites and click the settings icon for the site you want to access the site settings for.

Enable/Disable ChatThis setting is to either display the chatbox to visitors on website or hide that.

Time DurationThis setting is to set the frequency of calls to chat API. The value entered here is in seconds.NOTE: We recommend the default value entered 3.

Chat ModeYou can change the chat mode to either online and offline.If this is online, it will keep tracking any live agents and will show the live chat window as online to visitors.If offline is selected, doesn’t matter if agents are online or offline. The system will keep showing the offline form/message to website visitors.

Bypass pre-chat formThis option could be used to either bypass the pre-chat form which appear to take some basic visitors information. Like name, email address etc.If selected yes, then user will directly start the chat with agents rather than filling a required pre-chat form to input his/her information.If selected No, then a required pre-chat form will appear to ask the visitors information before starting the chat.

Send Chat TranscriptThis option is to allow to send the chat transcript after a chat session ends between website visitor and agent.There are three different selections available for this option:Yes – It will send the chat transcript to the visitor right after session completion.No – Chat transcript will not be sentAsk the Visitor – When visitor ends a chat session, a popup will appear to ask them if they want to receive the chat transcript to their email address.Note: This option will appear and work if and only if No is selected for Bypass pre-chat form.

Trigger Chatbox AutomaticallyThis option is to trigger the chatbox and bring the website visitors attention.If Yes selected for this, then under Trigger After you can set after how many seconds the chatbox should trigger.If No, then chatbox will not trigger.Note: This option will appear and work if and only if No is selected for Bypass pre-chat form.

Trigger AfterThis option will appear if and only if you have selected Yes for above option Trigger Chatbox Automatically.Here you can set after how many seconds the chatbox should trigger automatically.

Show Feedback FormThis option is to show a feedback form to the visitors when the chat session is completed. So that they can leave feedback for the agent they had communication with.Yes – If you want to show the feedback formNo – if you do not want to show the feedback form to visitors

Show a department selection box to the visitorThis option is to either show or hide a dropdown of department selection on pre-chat/offline form.Yes – then the dropdown box with department list will appearNo – then the dropdown box will not show

Suggest agent in Chatbox Randomly to the visitorThis option is to show the online agents profile (pic and name) appear randomly to the visitors rather than the default chat symbol.
Here is how this option’s values work:Yes – then agents profile info will appear randomly.No – the default chat symbol or chatbar will appear.NOTE: This option will appear and work if and only if Show a department selection box to the visitor option is set to No.

Allowed file typesUnder this option, you can set file types by their extensions separated by pipe ( | ) symbol to allow visitors to send files.NOTE: This option will appear and work if and only if option Enable/Disable File Sharing is set to Yes.

File Upload SizeThis is to set the maximum file upload size (in KB) to limit the visitors to how big file they can send.Note:The default size set to is 5000 KB (~5MB). This size also depends on the max upload size of your php configuration on server.This option will appear and work if and only if option Enable/Disable File Sharing is set to Yes.

Hide Powered By
This option is to either show the powered by option (you can set it to anything you want) to your visitors or you can hide that.

Yes – Powered By will not show.No – The text entered in Powered By Text will appear on chatbox widget.

6.4.2.Text & Info #

Go to Sites and click the settings icon for the site you want to access the site settings for. Now, click Text & Info.

Choose Default AvatarUnder this option you can upload an avatar image to show when no agent is selected to chat. This avatar image will show on offline form when chatbar style is enabled.

Chatbox TitleThe text you set here is a default title for the Chatbar when it appears on page load.

Online Widget TitleThe text you set here will appear for the online pre-chat form as a title.

Welcome MessageThe paragraph text you set here is a welcome message shows right at the top of the online pre-chat form.

Waiting MessageThe paragraph text you set here will show to website visitors when they fill the pre-chat online form and are waiting for an agent to respond.

Offline Widget TitleThe text you set here will appear for the offline form/message as a title.

On Offline ShowThere are two options here to select from:Form – To show the offline form. If this option is selected then you can set a message in Offline Form Message option and this message will appear right at the top of the offline form fields.Message – If this option is selected. Then you can set a message in Offline Message option. This message will appear to visitors if all of the agents are offline.For a good practice, if you have a different ticket support system or so. You can link that here in this message.

Offline Request Success MessageIn this option you can set a text message which will show to users when they successfully submit an offline request.NOTE: This option will appear and work if and only if On Offline Show option the value selected is Form.

Request for FeedbackIn this option you can set a text message which will appear in chatbox right above the feedback form fields.

Set Feedback Success MessageIn this option you can set a text message which will show after successful submission of the feedback given by visitor.

6.4.3.Departments #

Go to Sites and click the settings icon for the site you want to access the site settings for. Now click the Departments Tab.Here you can see a list of all the departments added and you can choose the departments which you want to enable for this particular site.

Zoom Google MapSet the zoom level for the Google Map. The default value set here is 2. You can set it as per your need.

Time Duration in Operator RequestsThe value you put here in this text box is a frequency in number of seconds to call the operator APIs.

Notify All Requests to AdminThere could be one of two option selected for this setting.Yes – Then administrator will get notified for any online request generated by visitors.No – Administrator will simply be considered as an agent and will be notified for his/her relative online requests.

Can Operators See Potential Visitors and Can initiate Chats?There could be one of two option selected for this setting.Yes – Then agent can see online visitors visiting the website along with their location information and pages they are visiting. Even if they haven’t initiated chat with support staff yet. In addition, operator can initiate chat with them.No – Then no online visitors will appear to operator and they can only see the visitors who has generated chat requests.

Enable/Disable Canned MessagesThere could be one of two option selected for this setting.Yes – Then agents will have option of canned messages. They can choose a canned message to send to visitors and can add or modify their own canned message templates.No – Then canned message will be disabled for the agents.

Can Operator Share Files?This option is to allow operators/agents to send files to visitors during the chat.Yes – Operators can send file to visitorsNo – Operators cannot have an option to send files

Allowed file typesUnder this option, you can set file types by their extensions separated by pipe ( | ) symbol to allow visitors to send files.NOTE: This option will appear and work if and only if option Can Operator Share Files? is set to Yes.

File Upload SizeThis is to set the maximum file upload size (in KB) to limit the operators to how big file they can send.Note:The default size set to is 5000 KB (~5MB). This size also depends on the max upload size of your php configuration on server.This option will appear and work if and only if option Can Operator Share Files? is set to Yes.

Admin Panel LogoUsing this option, you can upload your own logo to update that in the ChatBull admin panel.Note:This will not change logo in desktop and mobile apps because of the license restriction.

Admin Panel NameThe text you set here in this option will appear if no logo image is uploaded under Admin Panel Logo option. Also, this could be used in transcript and other emails throughout the system.

Admin Panel EmailThe email address set here will be used throughout the system to send email from.Note: It is recommended that the email address must of same domain where the Chatbull is installed and must be a valid email address created on server.For example, if Chatbull is installed at www.example.com then the email must be something@example.com

Choose Operator Chat Theme
There are two types of themes available (Bubbles Boom, Classic) for the operator and administrator can set the type of theme they want to enable for operators chat panel.

9.Users #

9.1.Create a New User #

To add a new agent, click the + button given in bottom right corner of the screen.

This will open a popup where user can fill the information about agent and can select sites (and then departments) from a checkbox list which the admin want that agent to be available to receive chat requests for.

Finally, hitting the Submit button will save all the information and create this new agent account.

9.2.Modify User Account #

Administrator can modify agent & him/herselfs account. Clicking the PENCIL icon under ACTION tab for the individual record (as shown in below screenshot) will open a popup where administrator can modify the user information and submit that again to save in database.

11.1.Add New Language #

To add a new language, you need to click the + button given in bottom right corner of the screen. This will open a popup (as shown in following figure). Here you can enter name of the language and a machine name. You can also upload a flag image.

Now, clicking the SAVE button will create this new language and will save in database. And this will start showing in the list of the languages.

Note:By default the newly added language will have copy given in English language.

12.Connect With Existing Users #

Chatbull offers a features to connect more with your existing users of the system. Doesn’t matter if this is a WordPress, Joomla, Magento or anything. You can follow the below instructions to auto fill your logged in users information:

In the widget code you generate to put on your website. There is a variable cbuser as follows:

var cbuser = {name: '', email: '', message: ''}

You can place the logged in user’s name and email address here.

For example, if you have a php based website.

Then you can store the user’s name and email in a php variables. Let’s say $name, $email.

So, now you change the above variable cbuser’s value as follows:

var cbuser = {name: '<?php echo $name;?>', email: '<?php echo $email'} and then you can bypass the pre-chat form under settings in admin panel That should be it to integrate this with your existing joomla user